Demon Slayer Film Projected to Top US Box Office

According to The Box Office Mojo website, Demon Slayer- Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train earned towards $6,399,846, beating out the new Mortal Kombat film. If nothing changes by Monday, the film will be the second Japanese film to rank #1 at the U.S weekend box office. The only first anime film to reach this record was Pokemon: The First Movie over twenty years ago. At the same time as this number projection, The Numbers website also reported that Demon Slayer is less than $3.5 million away from being the #1 film for 2020 worldwide.

Demon Slayer is Taking Over Japan and the U.S

The anime movie is also now the #3 highest-grossing anime film in the United States. Its total gross as of Sunday is estimated at $34,118,776 in the United States. It recently surpassed the former #3 spot Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The Demon Slayer film barely trails behind the #2 spot Pokemon 2000- The Movie ($43,758,684). In Japan, Mugen Train has the highest opening weekend for October 16-18th. The movie sold close to four million tickets and earned close to $44 million in its first three days.

However, both films saw a steep drop in revenue at an estimated 70%. This is mainly due to the struggle of gaining in-person moviegoers due to coronavirus concerns. Demon Slayer earned an estimated $21 million at the box office for its opening weekend in the U.S. This makes it the second highest-earning anime film and Funimation’s biggest three-day opening weekend to this day. The film opened on over 2,000 screens nationwide (including IMAX and 4DX screens).

Funimation and Aniplex of America are still screening Demon Slayer- Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train in the original Japanese audio (with subtitles) and English. This same format applies to the upcoming digital purchase, which will be available on June 22, 2021.